And I remember as a kid listing things in order, putting the gift I would most like Santa to bring at the top of list.

One year that was a bicycle, another year a certain type of BB gun, and another year a video game system.

Throughout other years the number one gift request varied but was always the one thing on my list I went to bed dreaming about on Christmas Eve. And although such is to be expected of a child, it seems that a lot of adults now go to bed on Christmas Eve dreaming of what Santa might bring them as well: especially when the number one thing on their list is a Walther .380 or a Glock model 27 or a Springfield XD subcompact 9mm, all of which are splendid guns for concealed carry permit holders.

As a matter of fact, judging from sales receipts and FBI reports regarding sales for December 2011, it seems that Santa delivered at least 1.5 million firearms for Christmas.

Not only is this news in light of the fact that it required the FBI to do a record setting number of background checks in a month – 1.5 million in December alone – but also because it continues to highlight what has been a growing trend among people of all walks of life: namely, folks are less and less trustful of government’s ability to keep them safe.

In early December I had a post on Big Government in which I pointed out gun sales on black Friday had already shattered records. On that day alone, the FBI had done 126,166 background checks for firearms sales. Moreover, an obvious trend on that day was the growing number of women interested in firearms for personal protection. My observation then, which has not changed now, was that the freaks who have been paraded out in Obama’s #OccupyWallStreet movement, the blatant civil unrest that has been fed by Obama’s ongoing class warfare rhetoric, and the violence (sexual and otherwise) that has marked both has reminded us that our safety rests in our own hands. As a result, a growing number of women who want to be safe scratched clothing off the number spot on their Christmas lists and instead wrote “a Smith & Wesson BODYGUARD .38 Special” or “a Sig Sauer P238 .380.”

Of course men bought and received the lion’s share of guns for Christmas, and outside of hunters, the majority of these sales were driven by the same concern – personal safety. After all, what better way to keep yourself and your family safe than to have a firearm that can be used to repel and if need to be, to kill, a household intruder, carjacker, or other criminal who is intent on doing harm to you?

Therefore, when all was said and done Dec. 23 became the second largest single day for gun sales (second only to black Friday) with 102,222 background checks performed.

A timely example of how this return to taking responsibility for our own lives played out right before my eyes over the Christmas break. I was fortunate to go shooting with a couple of friends, a husband and a wife, and the wife had never shot a gun before in her life. The husband had purchased a Ruger .380 LCP, a Glock model 27, and a Smith & Wesson Governor revolver. We shot each weapon repeatedly until Mary settled on the one she was most comfortable operating.

As we were packing up her husband said: “Okay, this gun will be in your nightstand, ready to go if anyone breaks in when I’m not home.”

America is the land of the free, and that freedom was exemplified on Christmas as Santa did his part in bringing us guns we can keep and bear for self-defense.

AWR Hawkins

About: AWR Hawkins writes for all the BIG sites, for Pajamas Media, for RedCounty.com, for Townhall.com and now AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.

His southern drawl is frequently heard discussing his take on current events on radio shows like America’s Morning News, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, the Ken Pittman Show, and the NRA’s Cam & Company, among others. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (summer 2010), and he holds a PhD in military history from Texas Tech University.

If you have questions or comments, email him at awr@awrhawkins.com. You can find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/awr.hawkins.